The year 1993 was the year that secured the future of The Observer newspaper; founded in London in 1791, it was the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper, but it had been reporting heavy losses and suffering a decline in circulation to about 500,000 copies a week. The broadsheet paper, renowned worldwide for its liberal, left-of-centre stance, was bought in May by the Guardian Media Group, publishers of the daily Guardian newspaper, which had similar editorial values. The deal was viewed as undeniably logical and sensible, one likely to secure this influential paper’s long-term survival and eventual editorial revival.

The Observer’s sale and relaunch took place against the background of a recession in Europe, where competition both for readers (by adding extra bulky sections) and for advertising revenue was intense. The British publishing industry spent the year conducting a vigorous "Don’t Tax Reading" lobby to prevent the government from introducing a 17.5% value-added tax (VAT) on the sales prices of books, magazines, and newspapers, all currently zero rated (i.e., no tax added). They warned that the VAT would have a disastrous impact on the industry--by driving up prices, cutting sales, and leading to closures of vulnerable titles and heavy job cuts--and won considerable popular support for this stance. In November the chancellor of the Exchequer bowed to pressure and left publishing untouched in his annual budget statement to Parliament.

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. Ltd. dominated events in the British newspaper market by introducing unprecedented price cuts. In June he reduced the price of The Sun, the largest-selling daily (sales 3.8 million), by 5 pence to 20 pence, making it 7 pence cheaper than its closest rival, The Daily Mirror. This was followed, in September, by a reduction in the cover price of The Times from 45 pence to 30 pence, making it the cheapest of the four broadsheet dailies. This policy, which was attacked by both rivals and industry pundits, who believed it devalued the standing of this august newspaper, was vindicated by a leap in sales of nearly 90,000 (to 440,291 in September). These reductions, however, cut the company’s U.K. income by 30%, prompting complaints from other newspapers that Murdoch was engaging in unfair tactics because of the conglomerate’s size. The harsh climate put a fierce squeeze on The Independent and The Independent on Sunday (both relaunched in the autumn). As the year ended, there was talk of an imminent takeover bid for the papers, which had attracted investment from Italy’s La Repubblica and Spain’s El País.

In January a government report stated that press self-regulation carried out by the industry’s Press Complaints Commission and newspaper in-house ombudsmen had failed. Tougher legal sanctions were called for, including creation of a powerful statutory tribunal able to impose fines and new rights-to-privacy laws to outlaw the use of surveillance devices, photographs, and recordings on private property. The report was heavily influenced by the series of lurid reports and photographs about the failed marriages of Britain’s royals. The Palace had lobbied for curbs, but the government seemed reluctant to act, wary of the constitutional implications of imposing state controls on press freedom. The British debate was being monitored closely in Germany, where politicians were increasingly worried by hostile media coverage of their private lives.

In Russia Pres. Boris Yeltsin raised eyebrows in October when he closed down 15 newspapers but agreed that Pravda, the historic organ of the Communist Party, and Sovetskaya Rossiya, the voice of the Russian ultranationalists, could continue publication under new names and editors. Opposition papers were also banned in Tajikistan in December; Azerbaijan instituted military censorship in December; and the board and editors of Croatia’s last remaining independent newspaper, Slobodna Dalmacija, were forced out in May. Meanwhile in war-stricken Sarajevo, Oslobodjenje, the 50-year-old daily, struggled to produce its 10,000 copies against appalling odds. Produced by a staff made up of Serbs, Croats, and Muslims--Bosnia and Herzegovina’s three warring groups--the paper had appeared every day since the war broke out in April 1992.

In the U.S., advertising continued to rebound modestly from the long recession, and newspaper circulation remained more or less stable. Still, the industry was not growing as fast as many others competing for investors’ attention, and prospects were not encouraging. Americans no longer considered newspapers to be their primary source of news, and many publishers were worried that large numbers of potential customers, especially young people, simply did not read newspapers at all. Meanwhile, the long-term outlook for advertising was uncertain, as advertisers faced an explosion of cable television channels, specialized magazines, direct mail, event sponsorships, and other means of reaching consumers.

To ensure prosperity in this gloomy future, newspapers plunged headlong into electronic media. Publishers in St. Louis, Mo.; Chicago; San Jose, Calif.; Atlanta, Ga.; and several other cities introduced electronic versions of their newspapers available on-line to readers with home computers. Others, including such major dailies as the Los Angeles Times and Long Island (N.Y.)-based Newsday, announced plans to inaugurate electronic services in 1994. In many cases these new ventures offered more than the content of the newspaper as sold by newsdealers; they also carried texts of speeches and documents, school lunch menus, proceedings of local government bodies, social notes, and other text that the paper did not have room for in its printed version. Freed from the cumbersome burdens of presses and ink, these electronic newspapers could in some cases "scoop" their paper versions by offering breaking news earlier.

One form of electronic news delivery had already become a major moneymaker for many newspapers: audiotext, also known as voice service, in which a computer system allowed callers to dial a phone number and obtain information from a prerecorded menu of options. Nearly one-third of American newspapers had some form of audiotext system in operation in 1993. Offerings included news, weather, stock market quotes, home mortgage rates, sports results, lottery numbers, and soap-opera plot summaries. Initially, newspapers profited from a small fee for every call, but increasingly they offered the services free to callers and charged advertisers to have their commercials broadcast during the call.

To some journalists the growth of such alternative revenue sources was a troubling departure from a newspaper’s primary mission. As New York Daily News editor James Willse said in the American Journalism Review, "It’s wonderful that we are able to supply our readers with sports scores on demand and statistics going back to 1938. But the real reason we are protected by the First Amendment--and the Home Shopping Network isn’t--is that we have to do good. We shine light in dark places, find out things people don’t want us to find out. I would hate to see people get too seduced by the technology and forget that."

Some of the year’s notable new ventures did not involve technology. The Chicago Tribune, recognizing a major demographic shift in that city, launched {!}Exito!, a Spanish-language weekly. The Wall Street Journal, affirming Texas’ long-awaited recovery from the decline of its oil and real estate industries, added a weekly section devoted to coverage of business in the Lone Star State. The New York Times concluded the largest single newspaper purchase in history when it bought Affiliated Publications Inc., owner of the Boston Globe, for $1.1 billion in cash and stock.

The year’s most dramatic newspaper transaction, however, involved the New York Post, a tabloid founded in 1801. The paper effectively changed hands three times during the year, endured two staff rebellions, and nearly went out of business altogether before being rescued by media magnate Murdoch. The saga began when the Post’s bankrupt owner sold it to a little-known financier, who in turn lost control to a real estate developer. When that owner tried to fire editor Pete Hamill, a popular local columnist known for his working-class leanings, the staff commandeered the paper and published a remarkable 20-page tirade against the new proprietor. Amid the chaos, Murdoch offered to resume control of the Post, which he had sold in 1988 after eight unprofitable years of ownership. But Murdoch, too, ran into staff opposition. Eventually he managed to oust a recalcitrant journalists’ union and resume publishing. Murdoch did not face an easy time of it; the paper had lost half of its one million circulation in a decade and was leaking money heavily, as were the city’s two other tabloids, the New York Daily News and the New York Newsday.

The 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service was awarded to the Miami (Fla.) Herald for coverage of Hurricane Andrew. Other Pulitzers went to Jeff Brazil and Steve Berry of the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel (investigative reporting) for uncovering alleged abuses by a county sheriff’s squad; the Los Angeles Times (spot news reporting) for coverage of the riots following the acquittal of four policemen in the beating of black motorist Rodney King; John F. Burns of the New York Times and Roy Gutman of Newsday (international reporting) for coverage of the Balkans conflict; David Maraniss of the Washington Post (national reporting) for articles on the life and political record of Bill Clinton; Paul Ingrassia and Joseph B. White of the Wall Street Journal (beat reporting) for coverage of management turmoil at General Motors Corp.; George Lardner, Jr., of the Washington Post (feature writing) for an investigation into the murder of his daughter; Mike Toner of the Atlanta Journal and Constitution (explanatory journalism) for articles on the overuse of pesticides and antibiotics; Miami Herald columnist Liz Balmaseda (commentary); Washington Post book reviewer Michael Dirda (criticism); Stephen R. Benson of the Arizona Republic (editorial cartooning); the Associated Press (feature photography) for images of Clinton’s presidential campaign; and William Snyder and Ken Geiger of the Dallas (Texas) Morning News (spot news photography) for coverage of the 1992 summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain. The award was Snyder’s third Pulitzer. No prize was awarded for editorial writing.

In one remarkably principled action, the Seattle (Wash.) Times became the largest U.S. newspaper to ban all tobacco advertising from its pages. The move put the Times at odds with civil libertarians, the tobacco lobby, and most of the newspaper industry. The Newspaper Association of America supported the right to advertise cigarettes and other products that were not illegal to use. The Times described its action in terms of morality and consistency. "These ads were designed to kill our readers," said Times president H. Mason Sizemore, "so we decided to refuse them."

In Canada the ruling of the judge in the Karla Homolka murder case raised questions about freedom of the press. Ontario Court Justice Francis Kovacs banned press coverage of "the circumstances of the deaths of any person referred to during the trial of the defendant," but Canadian citizens flocked to neighbouring U.S. cities to buy newspapers carrying stories of the trial. It was not even clear that the provincial judge’s authority to muzzle the press extended beyond Ontario.

Magazines

Although magazines made numerous technological advances in 1993, these technologies did not seem likely soon to replace magazines on paper. Wired, the new voice for multimedia fans that debuted in January, pointed out that only a handful of publishers had so far turned to CD-ROMs. Computer screens might be fine for reference data, but it was not clear that magazines were as accessible on database as on paper. Only 10% of Americans owned computers, and Newsweek, the first mass circulation title to experiment with a quarterly version on a CD-ROM, on a disc cost about $100 for four issues. Some 3,000 specialized periodicals were available on-line with full text, although rarely with illustrations and advertisements. The cost--from $50 to $300 an hour to read or print out--was prohibitive for most casual readers.

The economic roller coaster for magazines seemed to be on the upside in 1993. Circulation increased; advertising pages were up; and there were more new titles and fewer closings than in previous years. Among the new ventures were Family Life, aimed at helping the 30- to 40-year-old parents; Out, a national magazine for gays and lesbians; The National Times, an opinion journal; Esquire Sportsman for the upper-income outdoor person; The Journal of Martial Arts, an academic view of a television mania; and Biblion for book lovers. On the downside, House and Garden, a leading decorating magazine, went under after 92 years.

Directed at young parents, a new brood of family magazines made rapid headway in 1993. Family Life, a bimonthly for parents of children aged 3 to 12, was launched by the founder of Rolling Stone and joined a number of other publications in this fast-growing field, including Child, Family Fun, Parenting, and Parents.

The failure or success of a commercial magazine often is determined by the art director; an attractive layout or a redesign can recharge an old title. Time, Newsweek, Esquire, and Out had new designs in 1993. Scholarly journals slowly followed suit. In 1993, for example, Foreign Affairs, the bimonthly publication of the Council on Foreign Relations, received a face-lift with a glossy cover and a new logo.

Most magazines wait a long time to win the National Magazine Award, the coveted "Oscar" of the industry. Three-year-old Lingua Franca, however, beat out all other magazines with circulations below 100,000 in 1993. The lively gossip and shoptalk about academic life appealed to general readers as well as academics. Among others in the winner’s circle were The New Yorker for fiction and feature writing, Harper’s Bazaar for design, the electrical engineers’ IEEE Spectrum for its reporting on nuclear safeguards, and Newsweek for general excellence.

Two major bibliographies appeared in 1993. Journals of Dissent and Social Change, published by California State University at Sacramento, described some 4,500 periodicals that covered alternative lifestyles. The Right Guide offered information on some 500 organizations that published right-wing magazines.

The major legal decision of the year came in early summer when a jury found that Janet Malcolm, The New Yorker writer, had libeled a psychoanalyst by putting words in his mouth. Fabricated or distorted quotations set the jury against the writer. The judge declared a mistrial after the jurors said that they were in deadlock over what damages to award. A new trial for Malcolm, but not the magazine, was ordered by a federal judge for some time in 1994. The case was likely to be a landmark in shaping libel law.

The Economist, the weekly international magazine published in the U.K. (circulation: 510,000), celebrated its 150th anniversary and appointed both a new editor, Bill Emmott, formerly the magazine’s business editor, and a new chief executive officer, Marjorie Scardino. Emmott succeeded Rupert Pennant-Rea, who, in an unusual move, was chosen as the deputy governor of the Bank of England. The magazine’s overall editorial stance, espousing a free-market economy, remained unchanged. Recognized as a major success story in the publishing industry and selling especially well to professionals and decision makers around the globe, The Economist had been notably successful in fostering a market in the U.S. (210,000 copies a week). The appointment of Scardino, an American, as CEO acknowledged her role in developing that crucial market and pointed the direction of future development. Across the Atlantic, Robert Lewis, the former managing editor of Maclean’s, Canada’s leading newsweekly, was appointed editor of the magazine, which had a circulation of some 600,000.

Emboldened by the increase in affluent readership following unification, three challengers to the established German weekly news magazines Der Spiegel (circulation: 1,150,000) and Die Zeit (470,000) appeared on the newsstands early in the year. Focus, the splashiest of the three, was published in full colour by the influential Burda Verlag in Munich and was made to resemble U.S. newsweeklies such as Time and Newsweek. The Hamburg publisher Gruner & Jahr dusted off Wochenpost, a weekly newspaper published in eastern Berlin since 1954, and distributed it nationally beginning in January, and in that same month Hoffmann & Campe, another Hamburg publisher, launched Die Woche, targeted at the more refined of the traditional weeklies, Die Zeit.

Books

The controversy over the Net Book Agreement in the U.K. rumbled on inconclusively in 1993, the most recent rumours being that it would be abolished in the November budget. In Belgium a parliamentary bill to introduce resale price maintenance received the support of French-speaking booksellers, but it was opposed by Flemish merchants, who argued for the freedom to discount up to 15%.

Meanwhile, the value-added tax (VAT) on books in Spain was lowered to 3%, and members of the European Parliament voted in favour of zero rating for books as well as net pricing throughout the European Community (EC). The fight against the VAT on books also was waged in Poland.

Controversy also was stirred up by new evidence that relatively cheap U.S. editions of books were entering the U.K. via other EC countries where the publisher of the U.K. edition did not have exclusive EC rights. As this practice was bound to damage sales of the U.K. edition, there were moves afoot to renegotiate the allocation of rights. Meanwhile, in Australia the Prices Surveillance Authority announced that it intended once again to scrutinize the prices of imported books, and there was pressure to change the 1991 Copyright Amendment Act on the grounds that it had so far created more problems than it had solved. In other copyright matters, the EC issued a directive to extend copyright protection to 70 years after death, operative from July 1994. Russia introduced a new copyright law in August 1993.

Over the financial year to June 1993, the majority of European book publishers prospered, with operating profits up significantly. There was renewed merger and takeover activity. The Dutch publishing firms Kluwer and Backhuys acquired Distribuciones de la Ley of Spain and Margraf Verlag of Germany, respectively, whereas Mondadori of Italy acquired the residual 30% of Grijalbo of Spain. In May 1993 Headline Book Publishing of the U.K. agreed to buy the much larger Hodder & Stoughton, thereby creating the second largest independent publisher, after Macmillan. The biggest merger by far involved Reed International and Elsevier of The Netherlands, which took place on Jan. 1, 1993. This exemplified the shift toward multinationalism via the unifying factor of the English language. In July, Reed Elsevier acquired 96% of Editions Techniques, the largest general publisher in France, and went on to pay $417 million in cash for Official Airlines Guide of the U.S., which Reed had been pursuing since 1987.

The trend toward multinationalism was also exemplified by the creation of an international consortium of 16 publishers at the end of 1992, led by Orion in the U.K. and Basic Books in the U.S. The marketing of books was evolving in other respects as well. In the U.K. 65% of children’s books were now sold through supermarkets. Also in the U.K., book-club members acquired the same socioeconomic profile as retail customers, thereby greatly increasing competition among these outlets. Clubs offering paperbacks were particularly successful in eroding the traditional boundary between clubs and bookstores, especially where they imposed no obligation upon members to buy any books. Another innovation was the practice of giving out free as promotions offprints of chapters from potential best-sellers.

Politics dominated the publishing industry in the United States in 1993. Random House and Simon & Schuster joined forces to copublish the joint memoir of James Carville and Mary Matalin, presidential campaign strategists for Bill Clinton and George Bush, respectively, and who were also romantically linked. The book, reportedly sold for $900,000, was to be coedited by the publishing houses. Simon & Schuster also bought the memoirs of Virginia Kelley, President Clinton’s ailing mother. Bush signed with Alfred Knopf to write a book, coauthored by former national security adviser Gen. Brent Scowcroft, on American foreign policy and his administration, while former first lady Barbara Bush sold her memoirs to Macmillan.

Former vice president Dan Quayle’s memoirs were to be copublished by HarperCollins and its Christian book subsidiary, Zondervan. Former secretary of state James Baker sold the memoirs of his years with George Bush to G.P. Putnam, while Times Books/Random House bought a proposal from Marlin Fitzwater to write about his years as press secretary to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush. Lynne Cheney, former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, signed with Simon & Schuster to write about political correctness on college campuses and its effect on the country.

A pro-Bush political commentator also got into the fray. Rush Limbaugh (see BIOGRAPHIES), a right-wing radio and television talk-show host, signed a deal for "several million" with Pocket Books for a work of nonfiction titled See, I Told You So. His first book, The Way Things Ought to Be, was the fastest-selling hardcover in history, and the new book jumped onto the best-seller list as soon as it was released. Gen. Colin Powell, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, turned out to be the biggest winner of all; his memoirs were sold to Random House for $6.5 million. After former president Ronald Reagan, this was the second largest advance paid for a book by a former government official.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy was again unwillingly dragged into the media spotlight with the publication of Joe McGinniss’ controversial book The Last Brother, a supposed biography. Besides scathing reviews, two major controversies greeted the book’s publication. Because he was unable to obtain Kennedy’s cooperation, McGinniss invented his subject’s personal thoughts. Even though he admitted to blurring fact and fiction, McGinniss insisted that his work was nonfiction. McGinniss found himself in hot water again when biographer William Manchester accused him of plagiarizing The Death of a President, his 1967 book about the senator’s brother, John F. Kennedy.

Another attribution controversy centred around the Crown book A Rock and a Hard Place by Anthony Godby Johnson. The book was reportedly the autobiography of an abused teenager who had AIDS. Johnson’s adoptive mother was protecting him so strenuously that neither his agent nor his editor had ever met him, sparking hypotheses that Johnson did not exist. Later a reporter was granted a face-to-face interview with Johnson and came away convinced that the boy she had met was Johnson. Hoax charges were also leveled at The Diary of Jack the Ripper: The Discovery, the Investigation and the Authentication. The alleged diary of the infamous murderer was pulled from publication by Warner Books after its authenticity was questioned by experts.

Popular television personality Oprah Winfrey shocked her publisher, Knopf, when she withdrew her much-anticipated autobiography from publication without warning. She would say only that a memoir at this point in her life would be "premature." Hoping to fill the "celebrity tell-all" slot she left was singer and actress Dolly Parton, who signed a seven-figure book deal with HarperCollins.

Allan R. Folsom, a virtually unknown first novelist, won a $2 million advance for his thriller The Day After Tomorrow. The deal, which would include an additional payment of $500,000 if net sales reached 400,000 copies, was unprecedented for a book by an unknown author. Anne Rice, best-selling author of Interview with the Vampire and The Vampire Lestat, signed with her publisher, Knopf, to write three more installments in her Vampire Chronicle series for a reported advance of $17 million. She also received $1.5 million from Knopf for three-year paperback renewal rights to Interview with the Vampire.

There were several mergers and divestitures of publishing companies. Paramount Communications purchased Macmillan Publishing Co. for $552.8 million, then was the object of spirited bidding by QVC and Viacom to create a multibillion-dollar multimedia giant. Grove Press and Atlantic Monthly Press also merged, leading the way to massive layoffs of the Grove Press staff. So-called boutique publishing took some major hits as well; Random House closed down editor Joni Evans’ Turtle Bay division. Simon & Schuster did the same to editor Ann Patty’s Poseidon Press.

Toni Morrison, critically praised and best-selling author, won the 1993 Nobel Prize for Literature (seeNOBEL PRIZES). Author of six novels that chronicle the black experience in America, she was the first African-American woman to be so honoured. The 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction went to Robert Olen Butler for his novel A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain (Holt), and the nonfiction award was given to Garry Wills for Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America (Simon & Schuster). Best-sellers for 1992, as reported by Publishers Weekly, were, in fiction, Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King (1,317,364), The Pelican Brief by John Grisham (1,313,437; see BIOGRAPHIES), and Gerald’s Game by King (1,196,765); in nonfiction they were The Way Things Ought to Be by Limbaugh (2.1 million), It Doesn’t Take a Hero: The Autobiography by Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf (1,180,000), and How to Satisfy a Woman Every Time by Naura Hayden (1,050,000). Total book sales in the U.S. in 1992 rose 4.4% to $16.8 billion, according to the Association of American Publishers. U.S. book exports in 1992 rose 9% to $1,640,000,000. The increase was double that of 1991.